eben alexander is a harvard neurosurgeon who nearly died four years ago when a ferocious e. coli meningitis infection attacked his brain and plunged him deep into a coma for a week. brain scans showed that all of the parts of his brain that make us conscious, thought, memory and understanding, were not functioning. >> they should be a very rich network of them all through both sides, and yet we don't really see that because they're all filled with thoughts. >> reporter: doctors gave him up for dead, but after a week, eben alexander awoke, he says, with a wondrous memory. did you go to heaven? >> yes. i was rescued by this beautiful spinning white light that had a melody, indescribably beautiful melody with it that opened up into a bright valley. >> reporter: god was there, he says, as a vast presence of love, and eben says there was a young woman who soared across heaven with him on a butterfly wing and who gave him a message to take back. >> the concepts came straight into my mind. "you are loved. you are cherished. there's nothing you have to fear. there's nothing you can